Drill sergeant gets 18 months for crash that killed recruits

FORT JACKSON, S.C. (AP) — A drill sergeant at Fort Jackson in South Carolina has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to accidentally killing two recruits who were marching in front of his vehicle in 2017.

Andrew Marrow said Monday that he was running on four hours of sleep while driving a truck behind a group of marching U.S. Army recruits. He said he fell asleep and awoke to screams.

The State newspaper reports Marrow will serve his sentence in a military prison in Charleston.

Pvt. Ethan Shrader of Tennessee and Pvt. Timothy Ashcraft of Ohio were pinned beneath the truck and later died. Other recruits were critically wounded. A 2018 Army report partly blamed Marrow’s superiors for his exhaustion.